Less Than Ideal

The first husband and wife, Adam and Eve, had the ideal marriage--for a little while, anyway. But it wasn't long before sin entered the world (Genesis 3); and almost immediately, the first couple began to have marriage problems. They blamed each other. They argued. They did not love.

Sound familiar? The Fall is a historical event and a present reality in marriage. From that day to now, marriage has been less than ideal, because all marriages for all time have been corrupted by sin.

It is not good.

But the problems in our marriage are bigger than we realize. That's because the stakes are higher than we think. You see, we don't just disappoint each other's expectations, or dash each other's hopes; we fail to attain God's glorious ideal of reflecting Christ and His church. And we cannot hope to do so on our own.

But the Bible's story of marriage doesn't end here. And neither does yours or mine.